5.  The applicants’ dates of birth and places of residence are listed below:
(1)  Mr Kasparov was born in 1963 and lives in Moscow;
(2)  Mr Tarasov was born in 1968 and lives in Moscow;
(3)  Mr Kharlamov was born in 1973 and lives in Moscow;
(4)  Mr Kalashnikov was born in 1971 and lives in Moscow;
(5)  Mr Toropov was born in 1973 and lives in Orudyevo, in the Moscow Region;
(6)  Mr Stelmakh was born in 1978 and lives in Moscow;
(7)  Mr Orel was born in 1968 and lives in Moscow;
(8)  Mr Melikhov was born in 1972 and lives in Korolev, in the Moscow Region;
(9)  Ms Chelysheva was born in 1967 and lives in Nizhniy Novgorod.
6.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
7.  In 2007 the first applicant, together with other individuals representing a coalition of opposition groups, intended to take part in an anti-government rally to campaign before the forthcoming parliamentary elections. The demonstration became known as the March of Dissenters; it was organised by three individuals, none of whom are applicants in the present case. On 30 March 2007 they submitted notice of a public demonstration to the mayor of Moscow. They indicated, in particular, that a meeting would be held at 12 noon on 14 April 2007 in Novopushkinskiy Park, which would last until 1.30 p.m. and would be followed by a march via Tverskaya Street and Okhotnyy Ryad Street to Teatralnaya Square. The march was to end at 2 p.m. They estimated that about 2,000 people would take part in the event. The notice stated that the proposed demonstration was intended “to express the demands of Russian citizens for the urgent reinstatement of the full scope of citizens’ electoral rights, through the abolition of the legislative amendments of recent years”.
8.  On 5 April 2007 the Department for Liaison with Security Authorities of the Moscow Government informed the organisers that the event was liable to disrupt the functioning of urban services and the movement of passers-by. Therefore, authorisation could only be granted for a meeting at the foot of the Griboyedov monument on Chistoprudnyy Boulevard (a different location in central Moscow) between 12 noon and 1.30 p.m.; the number of participants could not exceed 1,000, the maximum capacity of the venue. No march was authorised.
9.  On 6 April 2007 the organisers resubmitted the notice, proposing four alternative routes for the march, all in central Moscow, and agreeing to limit the number of participants to 1,000.
10.  On 10 April 2007 the Department for Liaison with Security Authorities of the Moscow Government informed the organisers that none of the alternatives could be accepted, for the same reasons as the refusal of the original proposal. It suggested that the organisers hold the event at an aeronautical club in one of the Moscow suburbs.
11.  The documents submitted by the Government reveal that on 14 April 2007 the Moscow police were reinforced by special units of the riot police (“OMON”) brought in specially from twenty-nine regions of Russia “to protect public order and security” on that day.
12.  According to the Government, on 14 April 2007 at about 11.40 a.m. groups of people started gathering near Pushkinskaya Square. A group of about twenty persons, including the first eight applicants, started marching down Tverskaya Street while shouting anti-government slogans. The total number of people who took part in this unauthorised march was about fifty. According to the Government, the applicants were arrested as they tried to pass from Tverskaya Street onto Red Square. The Government originally alleged that the march down Tverskaya Street had begun at 1.30 p.m., as had been indicated in the police reports, but they subsequently submitted that the applicants had been arrested at 1 p.m. and brought to the police station at 1.30 p.m.
13.  The applicants claimed that they had not staged a demonstration in Tverskaya Street, but had happened to be there for different reasons. Mr Kasparov, Mr Tarasov and Mr Toropov claimed that at 12 noon they had been walking peacefully down Tverskaya Street towards the place of the authorised meeting at the Griboyedov monument. The applicants did not specify the number of people walking alongside them. They claimed that their way had been barred by the riot police who were blocking off several streets in central Moscow. The applicants claimed that at this stage all pedestrians, both aspiring protesters and unsuspecting passers-by, had been pushed back, surrounded and indiscriminately beaten up by the riot police, before being arrested and taken in police vans to different police stations.
14.  Mr Stelmakh claimed that he had not been heading to a meeting but had been walking down Tverskaya Street with his friends; when he saw the riot police dispersing a crowd and arresting people he had dropped into the “Russkoye Bistro” café, where he was arrested at about 12 noon.
15.  Four other applicants denied any connection with the march. Mr Kharlamov claimed that he had had no intention of participating in a public event; he had been arrested when he came out of a shop near Pushkinskaya Square after having collected his mobile phone, which was being repaired. Mr Kalashnikov claimed that he had been arrested when he was heading to a local McDonald’s restaurant to meet a friend. Mr Orel also submitted that he had been heading to McDonald’s but could not get there because the street was closed off by the riot police; he too had dropped in to the “Russkoye Bistro” café on Tverskaya Street, where he had been arrested. Mr Melikhov also said that he had been heading to McDonald’s but could not get there and had been arrested in Tverskaya Street.
16.  The applicants claimed that there had been at least thirty other people in the police van, all of whom had been arrested at the same time as them.
17.  When the applicants arrived at the police station, reports on their administrative arrest were drawn up in accordance with Article 27.4 of the Code of Administrative Offences. The first to eighth applicants were charged with the administrative offence of breaching the regulations on holding demonstrations. The administrative proceedings in their cases are described below.
18.  On 17 April 2007 the first applicant received a letter from the Federal Security Service summoning him for an interview, following a media appeal broadcast on 8 April 2007 by the radio station Ekho Moskvy, in which he had called on listeners to take part in the demonstration on 14 April 2007. It was suggested that such statements could constitute the criminal offence of incitement to extremist activities. There is no information on any follow-up to this interview.
19.  After his arrest on 14 April 2007 the first applicant was taken to the police station and was then brought before the Justice of the Peace of Circuit no. 369 of the Tverskoy District of Moscow. He was charged with a breach of the established procedure for conducting public assemblies, an offence under Article 20.2 § 2 of the Administrative Offences Code.
20.  The hearing of the administrative case was fixed for 5.30 p.m. on the same day. The applicant filed two motions to have the hearing adjourned in order to have sufficient time to prepare his defence, but the Justice of the Peace noted the insignificant volume of the case file (five pages) and decided to hold the hearing on the same day, having postponed it first by forty-five minutes and then by an additional twenty minutes.
21.  At 6.30 p.m. on the same day the Justice of the Peace examined the charges. At the hearing the first applicant was represented by a lawyer. The applicants alleged that no members of the public had been allowed in the courtroom during the hearing, as the building had been cordoned off by the police. The first applicant’s counsel, Ms Moskalenko, filed a motion to have the hearing opened to the public. The Justice of the Peace issued a decision stating that the hearing was open to the public.
22.  At the beginning of the hearing the applicant filed a motion to call and examine six eyewitnesses, four of whom had been arrested at the same time as him. The Justice of the Peace rejected the motion, holding that it was premature to call witnesses before the applicant and the police had been questioned.
23.  The Justice of the Peace examined the police report, according to which the first applicant had been arrested at 1.30 p.m. while “walking in a big group of people shouting anti-government slogans”. She also questioned Mr I., the policeman who had arrested the applicant and drawn up the report. The latter testified that because of the public manifestations expected to take place between 12 noon and 4 p.m. on 14 April 2007 he had received an instruction to safeguard public order at 19 Tverskaya Street, in particular to stop any organised groups of people heading in the direction of Red Square. He also testified that Mr Kasparov had been walking in a group of about fifty to sixty people and, following the instructions to disperse the unauthorised demonstration, which was threatening to spill over into the security perimeter of Red Square, he had arrested him. The applicant claimed that the policeman had given the wrong place and time of the arrest, and reiterated the request to question the eyewitnesses, stating that the persons in question were waiting outside the court and were ready to be called. The Justice of the Peace rejected the motion on the grounds that the persons concerned had not been mentioned in the police report and that the facts were sufficiently clear to determine the charges. The court accepted the version of events put forward by the police, finding as follows:
“Assessing the testimony by [Mr I.], the court finds it credible because [Mr I.] was performing his professional duties; he had not been acquainted with the applicant and had no reason to slander him; he [was a party] with no vested interest.”
24.  The Justice of the Peace referred to the Moscow authorities’ decision of 5 April 2007 and concluded that on 14 April 2007 the first applicant had attempted to take part in an unauthorised demonstration at 19 Tverskaya Street, where he had been arrested. The applicant was found to have acted in breach of the regulations on holding demonstrations and was convicted of an administrative offence under Article 20.2 of the Administrative Offences Code. He had to pay a fine of 1,000 Russian roubles (RUB, about 25 euros (EUR)).
25.  The applicant appealed to the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow. He contested the facts as established at first instance, claimed that the hearing had not been held in public and alleged that he had not been given a chance to prepare his defence or to present his case adequately.
26.  On 14 May 2007 the Tverskoy District Court examined the applicant’s appeal. It upheld the first-instance judgment, reiterating that the applicant had participated in an unauthorised demonstration and that he had been marching in a group of people chanting anti-government slogans. It also noted that there had been no proof that the first-instance hearing had not been held in public or that the applicant had not been given sufficient time to prepare his defence, since he had had two hours to do so.
27.  The administrative proceedings concerning each of these applicants were conducted at first instance by the Justice of the Peace of Circuit no. 369 of the Tverskoy District of Moscow. Like the first applicant, they were individually convicted of having breached the procedure for the conduct of public assemblies, an administrative offence under Article 20.2 of the Administrative Offences Code, and had to pay a fine of RUB 1,000 each. During the trial all of them contested the police reports, in particular as regards the time and circumstances of their arrest, and requested the court to call and examine eyewitnesses. The Justice of the Peace found, however, that the facts were sufficiently established in each case and rejected the requests. The decisions and the reasons given by the court were essentially the same as in the first applicant’s case.
28.  The fifth applicant’s case was examined in the absence of the applicant and his lawyer because the court had rejected a motion lodged by him for the proceedings to be adjourned, finding that it was possible to proceed without the applicant and his lawyer.
29.  The first-instance judgments were given on the following dates: in the second, third, fourth and sixth applicants’ cases on 16 April 2007; in the fifth applicant’s case on 22 May 2007; and in the seventh and eighth applicants’ cases on 25 April 2007.
30.  The applicants subsequently appealed unsuccessfully to the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow. The reasons given by the appeal court were essentially the same as in the first applicant’s case. The appeal decisions in the applicants’ cases were given on 14 May 2007, with the exception of the appeal decision in the fifth applicant’s case which was given on 11 July 2007.
31.  The ninth applicant alleged that on 14 April 2007 she had been heading to the meeting at the Griboyedov monument. At Sretenskiye Vorota Square she and other pedestrians had been attacked by a unit of the riot police. The applicant had seen a policeman hitting a man with a truncheon and had intervened to try to stop the beating, but the policeman had kicked her on her left leg. She had been badly hurt and therefore could not go to the meeting. Later on the same day she had sought medical help at Moscow City Clinic no. 137, where she had been diagnosed with a haematoma of the left ankle.
32.  On 16 April 2007 the applicant filed a complaint with the Moscow prosecutor’s office requesting that criminal proceedings be brought against the policemen who had used force against her.
33.  On 6 July 2007 the Meshchanskiy Inter-District Prosecutor’s Office decided to dispense with a criminal investigation into the incident.
34.  On 18 March 2011 the same prosecutor’s office quashed the above decision and remitted the file for additional investigation. Instructions were given to question the applicant and the three named eyewitnesses, to obtain the medical documents and to conduct a forensic examination. There is no information as to the outcome of those proceedings.